Kentucky Employment Law Explained in Full

by Garry S.

Kentucky Employment Law: What are Employment Laws in Kentucky?

Work days and hours Laws in Kentucky

Kentucky State laws specify that the working days of the week as a total of 168 hours. Of the seven work days, it is mandatory to provide one work day off as rest for 24 hours. Special permission can be taken if employees voluntarily are ready to work without a break.

As per Federal laws, a total of 40 hours of work per week is classified as regular work hours. According to Kentucky laws, an employee must be given a break time for meals for a reasonable period. This is apart from a break of 10 minutes to be given every four hours of work.

There are restrictions on the working of minors, below 14 years of age in any establishment, unless it is part of a school approved the program. There are multiple restrictions on minors of the age 16 to 17 and also 15 from working in certain places. Also, they need to be given 30 minutes of lunch break. They cannot work more than 30 hours in a school week.

Leave Laws in Kentucky

Sick leave: There is no requirement in Kentucky law to provide paid sick leave. Unpaid sick leave may be taken by employees as per Federal laws.

Vacation leave: Kentucky does not mandate paid or unpaid vacation benefits to be given to employees. They need to provide it only if they have committed to do so at the time of joining.

Holiday leave: There is no provision for holiday leave in Kentucky. As per local law, employees can be asked to work on holidays.

Jury duty leave: An employer is required to allow employees to go for jury duty, but is not required to grant leave.

Voting leave: Kentucky requires that on voting day, employees should be given up to 4 hours of permission to go and vote or go to obtain an absentee ballot.

Payment Laws in Kentucky

The state requires that employees should be paid for all the hours they put in at work. This includes work they do at the employer's site and other sites.

Any time spent on-call away from the employer’s site needs to be also considered as work hours if it was for the benefit of the employer.

Time for travel taken for any work for the employers benefit should also be considered in the work hours.

Regarding meeting, training and other such activities, the law of Kentucky specifies that the time spent on the meeting, training must be counted as part of working hours.

Overtime needs to be paid at one and a half times regular pay if employees have to work more than 40 hours a week.

As per Kentucky law, the minimum wage paid to employees should be $7.25 per hour, which is as per the Federal laws.

The minimum wage for employees who receive tips is $2.13 per hour.

Apprentices, Learners, Trainees and the disabled cannot be paid a rate lower than the minimum wage that has been fixed.

At the time of joining, employees need to be given a wage notice with details of wages paid, time and place of payment, etc. Wage stubs must be provided every month to employees.

Wages must be paid twice a month. It must be paid within 18 days after the end of the specified pay period.

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